Chris Quinn: Recapping the Con, sort of

I watched the Con on TV and read about all of it on numerous websites and news outlets.

But reading and looking at it from a comic book perspective is deceiving.

When you get online and read the many message boards and listen to fans and retailers who have been going to this event for the past decade or two, the one sentiment they all seem to share is, “what happened to the comics?”

The San Diego International Comic Convention is no more about comic books than it is about toys, or movies or video games. It is just a big hodge podge of pop culture. Which is fine and great fun, but come on, when network TV execs start sliming around and looking to pimp their new shows, you know comic books have left the floor.

Every year I hear more of and read about the comic book portion of the con, shrinking.

It still looks damn fun to go to and there is still a fair amount of news from comic publishers, but don’t deceive yourselves. If you want a good comic book centered convention, re-think San Diego before you book a flight.

For great comic book conventions check out Heroes Con or any of the Wizard World conventions. I also hear the New York Comic convention is huge and comic-centric.

If you want flash and pop culture with a small mix of comic books, head for San Diego. Like I said, the event looks immense and fascinating for what it is. But if you Jones for hard core comic book events, and only have money to attend one con, look to New York or Chicago or Charlotte or any of the dozens of smaller but hard core comic conventions throughout the country. There is a list of them here.

Personally, if I could only attend one Con a year, it would be the Heroes Con. Heroes Con is the little con that could. It started small, remains in the mid level of comic book conventions, but seems to deliver a heavy comic book experience every year.

Again, I am no expert on Comic Conventions, but I have been to dozens of the small and mid size ones. Sadly never any of the of the biggies. So I could just be full of it.

Yet when I think of comic conventions, I do not think of panel presentations for “Lost” season 3, or the movie “Grind House,” or “The Simpsons” 18th season, or a “Fallen” Q&A with its actors and author, or … you get the point.

Who knows? Maybe San Diego is the model. Maybe the other bigger cons should look to San Diego as an example of what works well and evolve into to something similar? It is after all the most successful convention of its type. And you can’t argue with numbers.

But I know the last thing I would want to see or care about at a comic convention is the new fall line up for ABC, CBS or whatever.

Regardless, you gotta love all the people! I would go just to see all the folks in their costumes. Gotta love the dedication it takes to get into costume.

Anyway, for a huge run down of the comic book news from ComicCon 2006, see below.

Newsarama has this beauty of a page breaking down their entire coverage of the comic convention.

Then IGN offers their own recap, but it is kind of difficult to navigate.